Back to the Grind / Student Loan Payoff / CT Scan / New Tiny Toon Cels!
The shutdown ended last week and it was back to the old grind at work. For the last month or so, I've been training on a few machines that are fairly easy. I certified at the end of the work week last week and now I'm completely caught up with one of my counterpart coworkers who has all the same "certs" as me. The only difference between us is that I do IT. And boy, last week was a fun one. On Thursday, some databases went down and by the time our shift arrived, the issue wasn't solved and the day-crew just left. All night, we had massive issues and I ended up calling the house of one of the computer group leads to get some action done. Still ended up being 4 AM before things improved, and even then, it was only for an hour. It was one of those nights that's fun and exciting because it's a different adventure but at the same time I had seventy people asking me constantly what the deal was.
It looks like they're discussing another two-week shutdown in late March since even with the December shutdown work is slow and orders remain down. More on that as March approaches.
A major event: I've fully paid off my EOU student loans. I am now officially 100% debt free. I owe no one a dime and all the money that comes in from my job and investments is mine. Since I began paying them back in 2005, I've made sixty individual payments on these loans. This massive final payment was accepted a couple weeks ago and is the largest check I've ever held in my hands let alone personally wrote: $10,200 and change. As I was dropping it in the mail, I felt like Frodo at the end of The Lord of the Rings saga after the ring had been destroyed: "It's gone, it's done!"
Last time I wrote, I was getting all emotional about the pain in my side and how I had a CT scan coming up. I did the scan last week (Kinda fun and fascinating) and the results were pretty much what I expected deep down: I'm as healthy as is humanly possible and there's nothing wrong with me. I was disappointed that the mystery continues but I didn't break down. When I went in to see my doctor to discuss the results, he thankfully didn't rush and we spent time discussing everything. The images were incredibly clear and the techs had a 3D visualization of my entire abdomen. They saw nothing of any significance whatsoever outside of a few common and benign enlarged blood vessels in my liver. Bombarded with the sheer amount of reliable data we've collected about my gut since May of last year, my doctor and I are convinced and satisfied that the pain I'm experiencing is beyond his pathology. The testing is over.
So what now? Physical therapy. Our last real guess is that this is a muscle problem. That's all there is left to look at. I've been accepted as a patient at an OHSU physiatrist clinic (After much debate since the doctors weren't sure they could help me until now) and when I go in next month I expect to be poked and prodded. I'm looking forward to it. It's the last real hope I have. Seriously, what else could it be? It has to be a grumpy muscle somewhere. One journey ends, another continues.
On a more artistic front, I finally got around to framing some Tiny Toon Adventures animation cels I bought off eBay a month ago. These new cels feature Buster and Babs running. I've been collecting these over the years and I was lucky enough to have snagged them both from the same seller for a great price. However, I had to do all the leg-work of getting a couple nice frames and UV-resistant glass plus colored mat board. I'm really thrilled with how they turned out and also that they included the original hand-painted backgrounds as used in the TV show. There's no certificates or authentication stamp, so it's probably items that leaked out of the studio, but they're in great condition and all cleaned up and they're simply gorgeous. How I scored both of these being the collectables that they are, I do not know. Check 'em out! Click the image for the full size view! Now to find a place on the wall worthy of these rabbits!
It looks like they're discussing another two-week shutdown in late March since even with the December shutdown work is slow and orders remain down. More on that as March approaches.
A major event: I've fully paid off my EOU student loans. I am now officially 100% debt free. I owe no one a dime and all the money that comes in from my job and investments is mine. Since I began paying them back in 2005, I've made sixty individual payments on these loans. This massive final payment was accepted a couple weeks ago and is the largest check I've ever held in my hands let alone personally wrote: $10,200 and change. As I was dropping it in the mail, I felt like Frodo at the end of The Lord of the Rings saga after the ring had been destroyed: "It's gone, it's done!"
Last time I wrote, I was getting all emotional about the pain in my side and how I had a CT scan coming up. I did the scan last week (Kinda fun and fascinating) and the results were pretty much what I expected deep down: I'm as healthy as is humanly possible and there's nothing wrong with me. I was disappointed that the mystery continues but I didn't break down. When I went in to see my doctor to discuss the results, he thankfully didn't rush and we spent time discussing everything. The images were incredibly clear and the techs had a 3D visualization of my entire abdomen. They saw nothing of any significance whatsoever outside of a few common and benign enlarged blood vessels in my liver. Bombarded with the sheer amount of reliable data we've collected about my gut since May of last year, my doctor and I are convinced and satisfied that the pain I'm experiencing is beyond his pathology. The testing is over.
So what now? Physical therapy. Our last real guess is that this is a muscle problem. That's all there is left to look at. I've been accepted as a patient at an OHSU physiatrist clinic (After much debate since the doctors weren't sure they could help me until now) and when I go in next month I expect to be poked and prodded. I'm looking forward to it. It's the last real hope I have. Seriously, what else could it be? It has to be a grumpy muscle somewhere. One journey ends, another continues.
On a more artistic front, I finally got around to framing some Tiny Toon Adventures animation cels I bought off eBay a month ago. These new cels feature Buster and Babs running. I've been collecting these over the years and I was lucky enough to have snagged them both from the same seller for a great price. However, I had to do all the leg-work of getting a couple nice frames and UV-resistant glass plus colored mat board. I'm really thrilled with how they turned out and also that they included the original hand-painted backgrounds as used in the TV show. There's no certificates or authentication stamp, so it's probably items that leaked out of the studio, but they're in great condition and all cleaned up and they're simply gorgeous. How I scored both of these being the collectables that they are, I do not know. Check 'em out! Click the image for the full size view! Now to find a place on the wall worthy of these rabbits!